Classic tours of culturally rich destinations are simply no longer enough. Heather Chart, general manager of the London-based tour operator CTS Horizons, says their traditional tours of Beijing and the Great Wall didnt seem to satisfy all their customers. "We were hearing feedback like, Its a pity we didnt have more time to talk to locals and We want to feel what its like to live in the country." So last year the company introduced a new tour to Wuzhen, a historic cobbled town outside Shanghai, which included classes in Chinese painting and calligraphy, cooking lessons and sessions with a traditional Chinese doctor.Tourists want to experience authentic local life——and to do it more leisurely," Chan says.
　　Creating an experience for travelers who share the same interest creates a sense of community——and that keeps customers coming back. Las och Res, a Swedish tour operator that specializes in rural vacations in non-Western countries, says that nearly two thirds of guests make a repeat booking. Las och Res uses home-stay accommodations in villages and prepares travelers with generous packets of literature in advance of their trips, so they can better relate to locals they meet. At roughly three weeks each, theyre also longer than the average tour. "Travelers need time to have in-depth meetings with local people," says founder Christian Jutvik. "Second class on an Indian train is always going to be more interesting than an air-conditioned tourist coach." Anke Samulowitz, a 41-year-old health manager from Stockholm, has traveled with Las och Res five times, from Haiti to Indonesia. And she has made friends for life. "The people who go on these trips think similarly," Samulowitz says. "I met two girls on a trip to Equatorial Guinea and we kept in touch and decided to go to India together."